Maxi Sopo was living the dream of a fugitive abroad, kicking back on the beaches of Cancun by day, partying in the clubs by night.
Then he did two things that are never a good idea when you’re on the run from authorities: He started posting Facebook updates about how much fun he was having and added a former Justice Department official to his list of friends.
Because of that indiscretion, the 26-year-old native of Cameroon is now in a Mexico City jail awaiting extradition to the US on bank fraud charges. Federal prosecutors say he and an associate falsely obtained more than US$200,000 from Seattle-area banks and credit unions.
“He was making posts about how beautiful life is and how he was having a good time with his buddies,” said Assistant US Attorney Michael Scoville, who helped find Sopo.
In Facebook status updates, Sopo said he was “loving it” and “living in paradise.”
Sopo, who came to the US in about 2003, made a living selling roses in Seattle nightclubs until, according to prosecutors, he moved on to bank fraud. He apparently drove a rented car to Mexico in late February after learning that federal agents were investigating the fraud scheme.
Investigators initially could find no trace of him on social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace, and they were unable to pin down his exact location in Mexico.
But several months later, Secret Service agent Seth Reeg checked Facebook again — and up popped Maxi Sopo.
Although Sopo’s profile was set to private, his list of friends was not, and Scoville started combing through it. He was surprised to see that one friend listed an affiliation with the Justice Department and sent him a message requesting a phone call.
“We figured this was a person we could probably trust to keep our inquiry discreet,” Scoville said.
The former official told Scoville he had met Sopo in Cancun’s nightclubs a few times, but did not really know him and had no idea he was a fugitive. The official learned where Sopo was living and gave the information to Scoville, who contacted Mexican authorities.
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